Flawless Cowboy

There was no media prompting an AT-TE to release in 2022, and there was most certainly absolutely nothing to prompt Lego to release a niche rendition of the gunship in 2023. 2020 onwards has been a renaissance for clone sets, driven by fan demand, and that’s really the only impetus it needs. It takes 1-2 years for Lego to take feedback and manifest it into sets, we’ve definitely seen them doing that as of late. The at-te and gunship aren’t quite as iconic and deserving of evergreen status as an x-wing or falcon (which would still release without any media prompting), but they’re certainly in the tier below that, which is why the walker isn’t retiring until 2025 at the earliest, and why the gunship has received a UCS set and playset (which is underperforming due to its niche status and poor size).

With it retiring this year, I’d hope a new one in the classic color scheme is around the corner. Releasing a niche gunship after a ten year drought, and then releasing a classic gunship shortly after seems like a good opportunity for Lego to “double dip” the market. Much fewer people would be interested in the Coruscant variant if they already had their hands on an updated classic one.

You could pair the droids vs clones battle pack with virtually anything and its collective value would skyrocket because that’s how good of a deal it is for $30, it’s an outlier. The older gunships actually integrated side builds into the main vehicle in clever ways, and that felt very cool and worth the money. No speeder just sitting there next to the CGG will ever feel as neat as slotting a speeder or command post or bacta tank into the actual ship. “Smaller” doesn’t capture the bigger problems with the newer gunship, it’s just less fun to interact with. On top of looking worse in almost every single way compared to its decade-old counterpart.

Lego hears us loud and clear, they’ll be releasing a micro, all-red MTT that appears in three frames of a 2009 episode of TCW. Jokes aside, I do think they largely give fans what they want, but sometimes they fumble so hard with sets that are the equivalent of layups.

There’s plenty of people who just want vehicles to put their troops into. Half the appeal of clone gunships or MTTs is the fact that you’re supposed to be able to cram a whole bunch of figures into them. As of right now, there’s nowhere to put a droid army, and this droid carrier is an excellent vehicle serving this purpose. Yeah I just realized there’s no way they don’t downsize it like the Coruscant guard gunship. Or perhaps all the backlash to the latter caused them to reconsider which sets they undersize and which ones they oversize.

On Lego’s website the droid carrier is marketed as an “adult” set. Given the price threshold it only seems appropriate Would’ve made a better anniversary fig than half the lineup which could easily be shoehorned into clone (fives) or rebel (saw) sets. Zam only makes sense when paired with the chase scene, maybe a Jango slave 1 which they also haven’t done in decades

The brittle dark red has been very overstated, I just built mine last year and had zero problems, although my set was released in 2018, so possibly they fixed it by then. You can always get replacements from Lego. I don’t see them doing a new one anytime soon considering it retired only five-ish years ago, and there are far more deserving remakes in the ~$240 range.

The droid carrier would make for such an excellent $30 battlepack, I’m confused as to why it’s locked behind a GWP, it would sell like hotcakes and people would want multiples, unlike a deathstar or lars homestead which are good, single-unit sets. This was my first droid set as a kid, couldn’t afford an MTT. I want four of these. The only way this makes sense to me is if an MTT is right around the corner. Meanwhile that UCS Interceptor is dang good it’s making me reconsider getting the playset version.

He popularized it but there’s been so many more egregious examples in the past few years. I agree that the grey baseplate stackers give creative army builders a bad name

Yeah people have enough access to generic stormtroopers. I think it’s important to note that most people don’t need/want more than a handful of copies of the same figure.

The overwhelming majority of people who buy battle packs do not remotely care for such things. Why would Lego cater to a fraction of a minority instead of giving kids a neat jet pack figure that can “fly”? Is an officer cooler than that to a seven year old?

I’ll add the addendum *anymore* 7914 is 14 years old.

How is the jetpack trooper “useless”? They appear in large numbers in the final season. Battle packs never consist of four copies of the same figure. On a side note, I think we need more sets to complement battle packs, like the UCS ATAT for snowtroopers and the Coruscant guard gunship for shock troopers. Base plates don’t count.

Behind the open doorframe is a piece with two holes to store a lightsaber and the clear cylinder

Hoping for a well done Delta 7. They’ve never done it justice and the original from 2002 remains the most accurately shaped.